The Cultural Experience Weekend

This weekend the International Office organized a trip to some of the "cultural" highlights of this region of Botswana. I thought it would be a great experience and at only 304P (around $50) I thought it was a good deal too.
So we met at around 9am and the bus left around 9:30 with around 24 internationals aboard including people from Norway, Germany, The USA, Zambia, and The Netherlands. The first activity was a museum about 20km from Gaborone in a town called Mochudi.

(A view of Mochudi)

The Museum was very small, about three rooms, and told the story of the local tribe that had been there since fleeing the Boer War in South Africa in 1891. We had a quick tour and while exploring the museum we overheard a lot of singing accompanied by some dancing. It turned out that there was a group from a wedding taking pictures on the rock outcropping that overlooked the villages right next to the museum. Many of the students were very curious so they scurried outside followed hesitantly by the more reserved among the group (including me).

(Some of the eager Internationals)

The location was really quite nice and the whole wedding (what we saw) was very beautiful.

(The Bride and Groom)

The older people were in more traditional clothing, but the wedding party was in outfits that were similar to American styles.

(Some of the wedding Party)
(The older people)

All the while people were chanting, singing and dancing and random group dances constantly broke out even while photos were being taken.

(A picture of one of the "random" Dance breaks)

While watching them take pictures the groom approached someone from our group and said that they would be thrilled if we would join them in celebrating at the reception. The group talked it over quickly and decided that we would like to see the reception, over the protests of some of us (again I find myself in the reserved group). We quickly gathered together some cash, although apparently wedding gifts aren't a major thing in Batswana weddings, to give as a gift. I contributed 20P (around $4) which is apparently VERY generous (crazy huh?).
The reception was at a nearby house at 1pm so we busied ourselves for the interim and then headed over to the reception. It is apparently tradition in Botswana to attend a wedding irregardless of the receipt of an invite. It is simply understood that if you have any relationship at all with the couple you are not only invited but expected. That means that the food is cooked for a huge number of people and apparently plus or minus a bus load of white people will not make or break the reception. Can you imagine a bus load of tourists showing up at an American wedding and not only being invited in, but becoming the guests of honor. I was very uncomfortable the whole time because we weren't formally invited, we didn't know anyone, and we weren't dressed appropriately but in hindsight I realized they really appreciated having us there. Some of our Batswana friends said that the bride and groom were probably thrilled to have us because it is considered honorable to have LOTS of people at your wedding and having exotic people (foreign white people) would probably make the wedding the talk of town for months. Anyway the wedding was nice but the unplanned detour put us well behind schedule.
After we left the wedding we went to a place called Matsieng.
Matsieng is apparently the "Garden of Eden" of the tribe that has inhabited the area for centuries. The legend goes that this is the sight were the first ancestor emerged from the ground and thereby began all of humanity. There is a very deep hole accompanied by some gigantic foot prints, except that all the prints are singles, not pairs.

(Matsieng's Hole)

(Matsieng's Foot Print)

Apparently Matsieng had only one leg. Geologists and Archaeologists suggest that as opposed to the traditional explanations the hole was formed by ancient volacanoes and the footprints are ancient carvings, a common form of traditional art work. The site was fascinating for me because we had actually discussed this very site in my Archaeology class on Friday. Talk about learning in application.
From that site we decided that the wedding had put us so far behind that we would not be able to make it to our other two stops for the day before dark (remember the sun goes down very early here in the winter) so we headed straight for the place where we would sleep. I was disappointed because I had been very much looking forward to the next stop but they promised we would make it to them the next day.
Where we slept was a traditional resort. When we got there we were greeted by a group of women singing and chanting who marched us into the campsite, showed us where we would be sleeping, chalets for the girls, tents for the boys, and began to perform some traditional dances.

(One of the "Chalets")

(One of tents)

They were very impressive, and were made even more impressive by the fact that the dancers were not terribly young, in fact the oldest was sixty years old.

(The dancers)

After that we were fed traditional food but we all agreed it was nothing compared to the food we had been fed at the wedding. After dinner we sat around the fire chatting until late in the evening. As we went to bed we found our sleeping places, thin mattresses and only one blanket, which would have been fire except that Botswana's nights are very cold, this night was about 40 degrees (Fahrenheit of course). It was freezing and not terribly comfortable but I managed to fall asleep quickly and sleep reasonably well, my only major complaints being that the water tasted so bad it was almost undrinkable, and the temperature. In the morning we were fed and hurried to a place called Manyana. This was the part of the weekend that I was most looking forward to. Here we saw cave paintings that ranged over the period of two thousand years. The paintings were fantastic. I was fascinated at the techniques employed by those early people to create something so permanent. Apparently they used a mixture of iron compounds, animal fats, animal blood, urine and other dyes to form paints. It makes me wonder what of ours will still be around and beautiful two thousand years from now.

(An abstract cave painting)

(A flake of flint that would may have been carried hundreds of miles thousands of years ago)

After than we went to "Livinstone's tree" which is apparently the Tree. This is where David Livingstone set up camp for a while. The tree is massive and beautiful but to me was not terribly interesting, after all it is just a tree. (more info on David Livingstone)
After taking some pictures our group got back on the bus and headed to the main attraction of the whole weekend, Mokolodi Game Reserve. We got there a little early and had some time to check the place out. The staff provided our group with several bottles of champagne and we met a group of (apparently) world famous poets who agreed to perform a few poems for us. It was very entertaining and quite pleasant. It was clear that this was a major tourist attraction as opposed to some of the other places that only had a fence.
Eventually we were loaded on a bush truck and taken to a beautiful pavilion to have the best food we have eaten since being in Botswana (the traditional variations of Beef, Pop or maize meal, and some butternut squash). After the meal we got on the truck again and they took us on an hour long game drive. About half way through the drive I realized we were in effectively a glorified zoo without too many cages. The hyenas and Cheetahs were caged and tamed and when we asked I we would see any giraffes the guide responded that they had not yet been let out of the stables. Nonetheless seeing the Antelope (several species), the Rhinos (perhaps too close), Baboons, and other animals in close to a natural habitat was very cool.

After the drive we headed back to UB (University of Botswana) extremely tired but very satisfied.
It was a very good weekend.
(more pictures)
Lots of love,
Tommy
more pictures coming...